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Management

Every good manager knows that people are their most valuable resource. In these articles we show you how to manage effectively to get great things from the people you manage. We'll tell you how to create powerful teams, nurture talent and prevent conflict. All our articles contain the best new business thinking from around the world.

Two thirds of the world's employees feel disengaged in the workplace, write Peter Flade, James Harter and Jim Asplund for the HBR.org Blog Network. But there is a recipe for happy, spirited employees and it has seven essential ingredients.

Many people launch startups because the idea of being boss is more appealing than being employee. However, as Suzanne Lucas observes on Inc.com, the problems don’t go away just because you are the boss.

The process of scaling up excellence in an organisation happens largely through teams, according to Robert Sutton, writing for Fortune – specifically, by growing new teams in the right way and weaving together their efforts across the company.

Writing for Forbes.com, Larry Myler observes that if a recruitment company can’t find, hire, develop and retain an extraordinary workforce for itself, it’s unlikely it will be able to help your company.

Myler suggests three key questions you should ask recruitment firms before choosing one to help build your workforce:

Writing for Harvard Business Review, David Zweig discusses a class of employees he calls “the invisibles”. These are extremely committed professionals capable of successful, high-profile careers but prefer to work away from the spotlight.

Discussing money with employees can be uncomfortable, as Amy Gallo points out, writing for HBR.org. Even if you’re sharing the good news of a bonus or pay rise, it’s difficult to talk about specific numbers when valuing someone’s work, especially if you’re not the one making the decision.

Leaders must learn and practise new management techniques in order to overcome the habits that are holding them back, writes Jean-Francois Manzoni, INSEAD Professor of Management Practice, for Insead Knowledge.

Writing for Inc.com, Jeff Haden observes that it isn’t always the truly terrible employees who cause the real problems – it’s the workers who appear to be doing a satisfactory job while slowly destroying the performance, morale and attitude of others.

Every business leader needs help at some time in their career. A view from an outsider can throw a new light on a tricky problem, and the right consultant can mean the difference between success and failure.

Business leaders strive for positive cultural change and innovation, resulting in happy, fulfilled employees creating value throughout the organisation. Writing for Strategy+Business, Lisa Bodell observes that “the journey is just as critical as the destination” when a culture is being reshaped.

According to Scott Behson, writing for the HBR.org Blog Network, many managers believe in giving more employees the flexibility to balance their needs and responsibilities at home while minimising disruption of the workplace.

Writing for Entrepreneur.com, Lindsay Broder notes that cultivating client relationship and overcoming obstacles requires “tons of creativity”. But business leaders often find themselves in a creative slump.

With that in mind, Broder offers some simple strategies for overcoming creativity blocks:

Big data has been hyped to such an extent that companies now expect it to deliver more than it actually can, according to Jeanne W. Ross, Cynthia M. Beath and Anne Quaadgras, writing for Harvard Business Review.

When you’ve been in the workforce for a certain amount of time, you realise the importance of skills and abilities that simply can’t be learned in business school, observes Katherine Reynolds Lewis, writing for Fortune. With that in mind, the author highlights five key – but neglected – skills for management success...

Writing for the HBR.org Blog Network, Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto in Canada, reveals that an executive on the verge of promotion to head a large global company recently approached him for advice on how to be effective as a new CEO. Martin offered the executive five recommendations.

Are you your employees’ worst enemy? That’s the question posed by Kannan Ramaswamy and William Youngdahl, writing for Strategy+Business. The authors insist that many leaders are inadvertently an obstacle to superior performance.